Text: Rense Kuipers Photos: UT archive
SBD | RESEARCH
‘My advice to fellow researchers? You don’t have to do everything yourself’ As the saying goes: teamwork makes the dream work. Aided by the Strategic Business Development department, Professor Sonia García Blanco was able to secure multiple major European grants over the last few years. ‘SBD helps me to focus on the things I am best at as a scientist.’
A
t the end of 2020, García Blanco was able to
Answering the right questions
secure a multi-million Horizon2020 project,
The researcher at the Optical Sciences group looked for
acronym OPHELLIA. She knows there are a
support at SBD’s Grants Office – not for the first time.
lot of pieces of the puzzle that need to fall into place
‘Already back in my ERC Consolidator Grant applica-
before it comes that far. ‘The odds of a research project
tion, Telma Esteves was very helpful in giving some key
being granted are quite slim. In the case of these big
advices in the writing of my proposal. Reviewers are of-
Horizon2020 projects with multiple stakeholders in-
ten focussed on a set of specific questions. They might
volved, it can go between 2 and 12 percent success rate.
attach great value about the innovative aspects of a
And it goes without saying that it is incredibly demoti-
project, for instance. The Grants Office helped me to
vating for every researcher if a proposal gets rejected
find the answers to these kinds of questions, so I could
after one and a half months of working on it fulltime.’
incorporate them in the proposal. After getting on the shortlist, I also received help in my presentation for the committee.’ Also after the stage leading up to submitting the
SBD TEAM VIEW ‘I enjoy coordinating support for researchers to give them the opportunity to write the best proposal they can, all the while collaborating in an excellent team, which will create a happy researcher at the UT and bring new scientific discoveries in this world.’
OPHELLIA proposal, SBD aided García Blanco greatly. ‘Maarten Emmerich, an impact development mana ger, really went the extra mile and got his hands dirty, by helping to coordinate the consortium and receiving contributions from all the partners. Once the project started, I received help from Sofya Kopelyan in project management and coordination. This management part
Sanne de Wit, Dutch Grants Advisor U-TODAY
2021
13
